Events

Join us online or in person for our September meeting. 

Join us in person at Knox Presbyterian Church (Lisgar & Elgin) in Geneva Hall.  Please use the Garden Entrance on Elgin Street. Limited free street parking is available on Saturdays, and the City Hall Parking Garage is available for $2.00.

To join online, please register here.

Open Mic @ 9:00 am

Together we will explore the opportunities that this COVID season has given the family historian. Over the past two years, have you had a research breakthrough or discovered resources that would be of interest to other researchers, and that you may not have found had it not been for the lock-downs and social distancing? During this informal session, opportunity will be given to anyone (online or in the room) who would like to share an exciting discovery.

Laughlin McKinnon

10 September 2022 / 10 a.m. EDT

Join us online or in person for our September meeting. 

Join us in person at Knox Presbyterian Church (Lisgar & Elgin) in Geneva Hall.  Please use the Garden Entrance on Elgin Street. Limited free street parking is available on Saturdays, and the City Hall Parking Garage is available for $2.00.

To join online, please register here.

Laughlin McKinnon

Presenter: Suzanne Lesage 

They were called Laughlin (Lachlan, Laughlan, Lochlin) McKinnon were Scots, Catholics, and lived on the Isle of Eigg in the Inner Hebrides in the middle of the 18th century. There were four of them on an island that boasted less than 500 inhabitants and even more unusual, three of them emigrated to Canada, one of them was my ancestor.

The presentation will be about the challenges of finding out which one was my ancestor who settled in the Province of Quebec in 1773 and the whereabouts of the other two.

Born in Quebec City, but having grown up in Hull – now Gatineau, Suzanne Lesage is a retired scientist with more than 20 years of experience in genealogical research and is currently president of la Société de généalogie de l’Outaouais in Gatineau. She has published several articles on a variety of genealogical topics, from Huguenots to DNA testing.

From Derry to the Pontiac – A Publishing Journey

8 October 2022 / 9 a.m. EDT

Join us online or in person for our September meeting. 

Join us in person at Knox Presbyterian Church (Lisgar & Elgin) in Geneva Hall.  Please use the Garden Entrance on Elgin Street. Limited free street parking is available on Saturdays, and the City Hall Parking Garage is available for $2.00.

To join online, please register here.

Presenter: Nancy Conroy

Nancy completed six years of research and writing on the Dales of Clarendon as of January 2022. The story traces the journey of the Dales from their home in County Derry to the wilderness of Clarendon township and documents how the family both survived and thrived. This presentation will provide highlights of her experience getting the rough manuscript into book format and ultimately into the hands of readers. The book was self-published with the assistance of Friesen Press. The book combines genealogy, social history, and family stories, in describing the adventures of the Dales. 

Nancy Dale Conroy, the author of From Derry to the Pontiac, has a keen interest in the past. She was born in Shawville, Quebec, as were both her parents, and she wanted to find out more about her Clarendon Dales. Countless hours were spent in Shawville, Quebec, primarily at the Pontiac Archives. A visit to Northern Ireland helped provide additional information about the Dales and Wilsons of Ulster. One of the biggest surprises was that her ancestors were originally from Scotland making them Ulster Scots. Her DNA confirms this, with a 54% attribution to Scotland.

Alfred Guidal and his land occupancy maps of Ontario

8 October 2022 / 10 a.m. EDT

Join us online or in person for our September meeting. 

Join us in person at Knox Presbyterian Church (Lisgar & Elgin) in Geneva Hall.  Please use the Garden Entrance on Elgin Street. Limited free street parking is available on Saturdays, and the City Hall Parking Garage is available for $2.00.

To join online, please register here.

Presenter: Bruce S. Elliott

While most Ontario genealogists know and make use of the county wall maps of the 1860s and the county atlases of the 1870s (many of which were reprinted a century later), fewer are aware of their 20th-century counterparts. This presentation explores the career of Alfred Guidal and the creation, form and locations of the land occupancy maps, atlases and directories he published in 1916-18.

Bruce Elliott, who retired from Carleton University’s History Department in 2019, has been a member of Ottawa Branch OGS since 1971 and was its Chair in 1979-81, and is member No. 11 of BIFHSGO. He is the author of Irish Migrants in the Canadas, The City Beyond: A History of Nepean, and Origins and Early History of Carp Village.

Stories from the War 

12 November 2022 / 10 a.m. EST

Join us online or in person for our September meeting. 

Join us in person at Knox Presbyterian Church (Lisgar & Elgin) in Geneva Hall.  Please use the Garden Entrance on Elgin Street. Limited free street parking is available on Saturdays, and the City Hall Parking Garage is available for $2.00.

To join online, please register here.

Presenter: Carol Annett

As an RCAF bomb aimer during WWII, Richard Glanville “Dick” MacKinnon survived parachuting from a burning aircraft into occupied France. Though memories of that time remained for the rest of his life, he rarely spoke of his experience. When he died 20 years ago, he left behind a collection of war memorabilia—a scrapbook, mementoes, letters, and newspaper articles, many of which he added over the years. Combining material from Dick’s collection, his own recorded memories, and additional research findings, this talk begins with the war years and ends with discoveries made after his death. The presentation tells the story of Dick MacKinnon and of people connected with him during the war—including his comrades who perished, and members of the French Resistance who risked their lives to shelter him. 

Carol Annett’s genealogy journey began when she inherited her father’s family history files as well as his war memorabilia when he died in 2002. She joined BIFHSGO a few years later. In 2010, after visiting the cemetery in France in which her father’s comrades are buried, she wrote about them for the BIFHSGO writing group. In 2022, the isolation of the pandemic has provided the time to delve into her father’s war collection in detail and write a more complete account to share with others, particularly Dick’s relatives and descendants. As a writer, Carol believes that telling people’s stories is an important part of remembrance.